Saturday 29 November 2014

Scarlet on the Horizon, a novel by Effie Deans

It’s June 1990 and Lena, a young student from the Soviet Union, meets David in rural Denmark.  There is a mystery at the heart of their initial meeting for he senses that somehow she recognises him, though they have never met. In the few days remaining to them they find a romance that appears impossible to continue. She comes from a closed city on the Baltic while he lives across a channel she cannot cross.  But a Russian fairy tale, Scarlet Sails, seems to hold out the possibility of a future if only they can grasp it before the Soviet Union falls apart.

A love story with intrigue, but above all with old-fashioned romance, Lena and David’s story will surprise all of your expectations.


This is a summary of a novel I first published in Russian. I wrote it as a sort of exercise to see if I could and to preserve something that was special to me. It is, of course, complete fiction. But like all fiction grounded in experience. What happens didn’t happen to me, but perhaps, it would be fair to say, the opposite of it happened to me and out of that opposite I constructed the plot of the novel.

During one of my breaks from the campaign, I looked over what I had written and with the help of a friend translated it back into English, rewriting what seemed to me not to work anymore and generally tidying things up.

Above all the story is a romance, a love story. But it has some philosophy in it and some allusions to the things that interest me. Those who are curious about what I’m like will find out a lot if they read my words. Those who are not curious will, I hope, simply enjoy a story that was written to be read quickly and, hopefully, with continually turned pages.

Below are links to where you can find a copy both of the physical book on Amazon and a copy for Kindle. The Kindle copy includes the first five chapters as a preview. I’m selling it as cheaply as Amazon allows, because I’m most interested at the moment in finding readers.  If you enjoy it, please, consider leaving a review on Amazon.


I would be really grateful, dear friends, if you could share this on Facebook, on Twitter or simply by word of mouth.  As always I completely depend on your Retweets. The main pleasure in writing is being read.  If this novel goes well, I have another in the pipeline about the independence referendum. I even have a prominent role in it. As always thanks for your support. 

Kindle £1.97 

Book £8.01